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Prince Charles Edward and the Highlanders Entering Edinburgh After the Battle of Prestonpans, September 22nd 1745

Printmaker: Bacon, Frederick · 1803-1887Primary artist: Duncan, Thomas, ARA RSA · 1807-1845Publisher: Hill, Alexander · 1800-1866

Prince Charles Edward and the Highlanders Entering Edinburgh After the Battle of Prestonpans, September 22nd 1745

Duncan's most ambitious history painting, it was commissioned by the London print publisher Francis Graeme Moon specifically to be engraved, about…

Duncan's most ambitious history painting, it was commissioned by the London print publisher Francis Graeme Moon specifically to be engraved, about 1838.

However Moon lacked the conviction to see through what he perhaps felt was a venture with only limited, and provincial, appeal and Alexander Hill stepped in to purchase the painting including copyright, plus an additional 100 guineas following the success of the print's launch.

The original painting was exhibited at both the RSA and the RA in 1841 and was subsequently lent by Hill to the Manchester Art Treasures exhibition of 1857, the London International Exhibition of 1862 and to the RSA's special retrospective loan exhibition of 1863, as well as touring Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.

“Northern Whig, 1859-12-14
[re auction sale the following day at McTears & Kempt, Glasgow of 1500 lots of stock of the late Peter Aitken, Jeweller and Silversmith in Glasgow]; ‘Among them we particularly notice the elaborately gold-embroidered coat and vest worn by the Chevalier Henry Stuart afterwards Cardinal York at the marriage of the Dauphin of France with Princess Antoinette, and the white satin and gold-embroidered coat and cloth of gold and silver vest of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Those most interesting Jacobite relics are in fine preservation and are avouched as unquestionably genuine as they were bequeathed by Cardinal York (the brother of the Prince and last of the Stuarts) to his Secretary, Mr Edgar, who died in Glasgow in 1831 and at the sale of whose effects Mr Aitken purchased them. They were borrowed from Mr Aitken by Mr Duncan, the painter of Prince Charles Edward Entering Edinburgh, and are introduced into that picture.’”

The figure of Prince Charles Edward was modelled on John Sheriff ARSA (1816-44) and the clergyman atop the stairs at left is modelled on Reverend Alexander Pringle MD of Perth.

A pen and ink drawing and two oil studies for Duncan's original oil (Private Collection) are in the collection of Perth Museum and Art Gallery. One of the two oil studies is a sketch of the entire composition.

It is probably also one and the same as the painting referred to as Duncan's First Sketch for Prince Charles Edward Entering Edinburgh, which was included in the sale of the private collection of David Octavius Hill RSA, held by Thomas Chapman in his salerooms, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, 1870-11-17 and which was sold for £10.10/- . Whether D O Hill had acquired the painting from Duncan direct, or from his own brother Alexander during the latter's lifetime, or following his death in 1866 is not known. [Perthshire Constitutional and Journal, 1870-11-24]

In a review of the print in the perthshire Advertiser on 1845-02-27, apparently quoting from The Scotsman, it wa sstated that Hill had spent over £4,000 on the undertaking and that Duncan had spent two years on the painting and Bacon nearly four on the engraving.

Hill purchased Duncan' oil painting for his asking price of 400 guineas and also purchased from him the copyright for an additional 100 guineas. The resultant engraving, which reputedly took Bacon nearly four years to complete, did much to secure Duncan's reputation, leading to his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy, and Hill's position as the pre-eminent fine art publisher in Scotland. Hill spent over £4000 on the undertaking